David Rossi
"My wife always said I had a flair for the dramatic." "''Which one?" "All of them."'' Two other unnamed ex-wives |job = Unit Senior Agent |rank = Supervisory Special Agent |specialty = Hostage Negotiation |status = Alive |actor = Joe Mantegna |appearance = About Face}}David Rossi is a Supervisory Special Agent and Unit Senior Agent at the Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico, Virginia. He, like Jason Gideon, his previous counterpart, are both partially based upon real life former profiler, John Douglas. Background David has been married and divorced three times, his first wife being Carolyn. The reasons for his divorces are never made clear, but it is likely that it was because of his devotion to his job. Following his first divorce, he made an agreement with Carolyn that they would still help each other out when the other needed it. It has been implied that he has a son. David was in early retirement until his voluntary return to the BAU in 2008. He had retired in order to go on lectures and book tours but returned to settle some unfinished business which wasn't immediately specified. Upon joining the team, it is obvious that he has had a previous working relationship with both Hotchner and Erin Strauss, the BAU's Section Chief. Unlike most of the other team members, Rossi is not intimidated by Strauss's personality, and he often calls her by her first name (much to her chagrin). Season Three In "Birthright" Rossi revealed to Sheriff Caulfield his reasons for returning. He held out a charm bracelet with the names of three children from one of his first cases. The children had come into their parents' bedroom to find them in bed, covered in blood and he promised them he would find out who did it. Each year on Christmas Eve, Rossi calls the children to let them know he hasn't forgotten them and he hasn't given up on solving the case of their parents' murders. He kept with this tradition through his return to the BAU, though none of the children had replied to his most recent calls. Rossi finally told Caulfield that the case had gone unsolved for 20 years; it was finally solved in "Damaged". He steps in as a hostage negotiator--his forte--in "Minimal Loss" when fellow agents Reid and Prentiss are held hostage. Season Six In Remembrance of Things Past, Rossi gets back on the hunt for The Butcher, a brutal, sadistic serial killer active in the 1980s and 1990s in Bristol, Virginia, when bodies killed exactly like the old victims turn up in the same area. He had investigated the case during the first murders, but was unsuccessful﻿ in catching The Butcher. He was, however, responsible for stopping his killing by narrowing down the geographic profile and alerting all possible victims in the area. The case stuck with Rossi for several years afterwards. He never wrote about it because he felt doing so would give the killer too much power. In the end of the episode, the killer, an elderly, Alzheimer-afflicted electrician named Lee Mullens, is caught. Upon getting home, Rossi, having suffered a writer's block earlier, begins writing his next book, presumably about the Butcher case. Season Seven In Proof he invited the rest of the team over to his house for a cooking lesson/ dinner party. In From Childhood's Hour, Rossi met up with Carolyn his first wife. He believed that she wanted them to get together again; he also seemed to be still in love with her. Rossi was later shocked to find out that she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and she knew that she didn't have long left to live.She asked him to help her end her life on her own terms when her time came. Rossi still in shock hasn't answered her plea. On the Job Like his predecessor Gideon, Rossi is an experienced agent that acts as the team's official profiler. He is adept at getting into the minds of criminals and works in tandem with Hotch to develop these profiles. He is also the glue that holds the team together, taking over as confidant and adviser to the team's personal and professional dilemmas. Notes * Carries a Springfield TRP, which implies that he has had past experience on the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. In Identity, he mentions having been present at the Ruby Ridge standoff. * Known bibliography: ** Deviance: The Secret Desires of Sadistic Serial Killers ** Frenzy: America's Worst Spree Killers ** Eyes of a Predator * He hates Los Angeles (The Performer). * He has interviewed Charles Manson three times (The Fight). * He interviewed Ted Bundy at least once (Limelight). * Unlike the other BAU team members, Rossi believes in true evil (Demonology). * He is familiar with video game character Niko Bellic, indicating he may be a fan of Grand Theft Auto IV (Safe Haven). * He was a fan of the Rat Pack (The Performer). * He is an apparent soccer fan (Out of the Light). * Joe Mantegna chose the name of his character as tribute to Sgt. David Rossi, an LAPD officer who was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, for which O.J. Simpson was later tried and acquitted. During the trial, Rossi was grilled by the defense on the stand for two days, even though his involvment in the case had only been that he answered the alarm call and been one of the first on the crime scene. http://www.aoltv.com/2008/12/09/5-questions-with-joe-mantegna/ *In an interview made around the time that he debuted on Criminal Minds, Mantegna states that his character has a son who can be seen in a photo on his deskhttp://www.aoltv.com/2008/12/09/5-questions-with-joe-mantegna/, though Rossi claims not to have any children in The Crossing. In Coda, however, it was hinted that he may indeed have a child, possibly with some form of handicap. The son seen in the picture is actually the son of the real life David Rossi. *He speaks some Italian ("Proof"). *He has a big house, which he calls "a mansion", and is a good cook, much like his predecessor Gideon ("Proof"). References Category:Main Characters